


Valor

by shmrrr



Series: Commander Cody Week [3]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF CC-2224 | Cody, Battle, Blood, Blood and Injury, Could be read as platonic or ship, Gen, Hurt CC-2224 | Cody, Hurt Obi-Wan Kenobi, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Near Death Experiences, Obi-Wan Kenobi Whump, Protective CC-2224 | Cody, Whump, dude cody kicks ASS, ocs are relatively minor characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 14:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30073959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shmrrr/pseuds/shmrrr
Summary: Cody has seen dozens and dozens of his men die, all his brothers, leaving their corpses on battlefields, burying them in shallow graves. For years, it has been his normal. Dare he say he'susedto it, heexpectsit to happen. Though, when it's thegeneralthat's near death...Thathits differently, hurts harder, makes something click inside Cody that demands him to run, to get help, to do anything in his power to save his Jedi.Includingtaking up his lightsaber and cutting down anyone who dares to get close.CODY WEEK DAY THREE: Valor
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & Obi-Wan Kenobi
Series: Commander Cody Week [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2208780
Comments: 19
Kudos: 106





	Valor

**Author's Note:**

> All copyright material does not belong to me.

Surrounded by blaster fire and explosions and the screams of the dying, to Cody, the battlefield was silent.

It went muffled and cold the moment three bolts ripped through Obi-Wan's stomach, neck, and chest, dropping him hard. It went deafeningly quiet as he shouted for his general, screamed at people to move, to help him. Even his own voice wouldn't reach his ears.

Time bled into the landscape, dissolving and meaningless, the only semblance of balance being the thrum of his own heartbeat, his pulse, his heavy footsteps keeping pace. And that pace was _suffocating_ as Cody vaulted over downed trees, across a wasteland of his fallen friends, brothers, his  _ vod'e  _ left and right, his brain reminding him over and over and _over_ again that he couldn't let Obi-Wan be one of them.

_Not_ him...

His Jedi was face down in the dirt, unmoving, too still for Cody to be able to breathe.  He skidded to a stop, knees hitting his general's thigh, hands planting on either side of his head to keep from toppling over him. There was no telling what state Obi-Wan was in, and he didn't want to risk furthering the damage with his own weight. The three charred holes were stark black against the bone-white of his tunics. As Cody righted himself, he pulled Obi-Wan with him, grabbing his shoulder and belt and hauling him over, mumbling out a curt, " _ sir _ " before he could properly see the damage.

Cody wished he kept his mouth shut.

Maybe, that way, Obi-Wan wouldn't have been so inclined to try and talk with the holes in him. 

His lips moved, small sounds squeaking out past the blood that welled in his mouth. Cody hadn't seen a look quite like the one his general gave him, all wide-eyed, bordering on a panic that was completely instinctual. If he were in the Jedi temples, he knew Obi-Wan would be berated for giving into his fear, for giving Cody _that_ look. But Jedi Codes be damned; Cody only felt pangs of grief, of understanding, wanting to say, "I've got you, sir" as he grabbed the general's lapels and jerked him upright, chest to armored chest, letting him spit up the blood that was suffocating him.

Over his shoulder, where Obi-Wan's head had slumped against his own, he heard a ragged, " _Cod_ \--" before the general broke into wheezing coughs, unable to stop. His whole body shook with the force of them. Cody, meanwhile, glanced down, taking time to assess the wounds as he hugged Obi-Wan higher up his chest to help him breathe.

His general had gotten lucky.  _ Terrifyingly _ lucky.

One of the blaster shots punched through his right shoulder - a relatively simple wound to patch up, thankfully - while another dug through his hipbone. Both would require ample bacta, possibly surgery and PT, and maybe even long-range recovery plans, but so long as no bones were shattered or splintered into the tissue around it, he would heal just fine. It would be a painful process, and frustrating, but doable.

It was the wound on his  _ neck _ , however, that worried Cody.

The final shot had grazed him but had still managed to sear a charred little crater at the base of his throat, just above his collarbone. Cody figured that was where the blood he was spitting up was coming from; while it wasn't deep, it  _ could _ be life threatening if not treated quickly, not to mention--

"Commander!  _ Watch out! _ "

Cody grabbed Obi-Wan and ducked just as fire rained above them. " _ Kriffing  _ hells." he hissed. At his side, Obi-Wan was gasping, stiffly trying to his head.

_ Shit _ , the blood.

Touching his Jedi's cheek, Cody carefully but quickly maneuvered him to be facing away; in that position, it didn't stretch the burn mark and scar his skin further while also a allowing him to hopefully breathe better, choking up the blood in turn. As soon as Obi-Wan was situated, Cody glanced up.

He completely forgot he was on a fucking  _ battlefield. _

No, forget wasn't the right word. Forget implied being unaware, implied he was goddamn _bad at his job_ , of which, Cody was not. Rather, his focus had been so fixed on Obi-Wan that he had only been seeing what was right in front of him - the injuries, the blood, the agony in those eyes - rather than the threat around them. It was foolish; a rookie move.  Sure, he was behind blockades that were, for the moment, holding strong, and yes, he was a soldier,  _ programmed _ for this. But he shouldn't have let it happen.

Now, his men formed a wall around him and the general, led by Waxer. The trooper was shouting something over the fire as he rushed for Cody's position. Getting to his knees, he asked, "How is he?"

"Alive." Cody huffed. He slung his weapon over his shoulder and glanced around for Obi-Wan's lightsaber, grabbing it while mumbling, "Help me get him--"

" _ Grenade! _ "

The ground heaved. Dust flew, debris followed. Cody was tossed somewhere, somewhere he couldn't make sense of what with his ears ringing, his heart hammering, his ups becoming downs and his downs spiraling so much he felt as if he were going to vomit. He peeled off his bucket, stood, then sagged, collapsing to his hands and knees again as he willed everything to just  _ stop spinning. _

When he peeled his eyes open, he found nothing but sand.

Sand, and bodies.

The general's was closest, facing him, staring half-lidded. Cody froze.

Obi-Wan looked _dead._

He was mere  _ feet _ away but Cody couldn't stop the earth from tilting, couldn't get his body to _move_ and just check for a pulse. He careened to his side, pulling a shuddering breath. Then, another. On the third, things began to slow. On the fourth, he could breathe easier. On the fifth, a speeder bike echoed behind him.

Cody scrabbled to his feet, grabbed the nearest weapon, and spun around.

The lightsaber was feather-light in his hands as he ducked, swung, and severed the bike in half. The enemy's speeder dove nose-first into the dirt, throwing him. He tumbled and rolled before he messily got to his feet, rushing Cody with a shriek, club raised above his head.

It were as if an Instinct was guiding him.

He flowed, rather than moved. Liquid in motion, fluid-like, shifting on his feet and rocking his stance sideways in time to dodge and pierce the alien through his gut. It took no effort to swipe up. Took none of the strength he didn't have left to carve through the creature, splitting bone and muscle and sinewy organs like a knife to straw. The brilliant blue blade was flawless and bright in Cody's hands as the thing flopped backwards, nearly severed in half, cauterized from stomach to skull.

He retracted the blade and, instantly, the metal went heavy in his hands. His arm snapped down with the weight of it and he almost dropped the saber if not for the white-knuckled grip he kept on the hilt. Cody blinked hard. Breathing was difficult, but standing was growing to be even more a pain. Staggering and ultimately dropping to his knees yet again, he inched his way back towards Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan, who had his hand outstretched, flat against the dirt but almost as if he were reaching for Cody. Obi-Wan, who seemed to be various shades of miserable, with pain-tightened eyes and a hitch to his hiccupping gasps. Even more blood was staining his hair, his beard, dribbling from his lips to mix with the tan sands underneath him.

Cody all but crawled over, bringing the lightsaber with him. He reached his Jedi with a heavy sigh and, mustering the rest of what he had, he dragged Obi-Wan up against his chest once more.

His general sucked in a greedy breath as he spit up blood.

"Y'breathing...sir…?" Cody slurred. There was a whistling in his chest. Or, maybe, it was in his ears. He couldn't tell.

If Obi-Wan answered, Cody couldn't hear it. Though, with how the man deflated against him, forehead to Cody's neck, he figured Obi-Wan was unconscious. Whether from the loss of blood, from his wounds, or from the trauma of the battlefield, Cody wasn't sure. Wasn't sure he wanted to  _ know. _ The only thing he _knew_ was that when he pressed two fingers under the general's jaw, he found a pulse. A pulse, plus breathing, was  _ living. _ And living, at this juncture, was all that mattered to Cody.

Living was what he saw as his men slowly got themselves off the ground right before his eyes, each one stunned yet moving more-or-less. It lit a fire of hope in his veins.  _ Vod'e cuyir oyayc  _ was all that went through his mind, rinsed and repeating, as  Cody sagged. That hopeful fire burned, and burned, and _burned._ But, with every passing second, his adrenaline faded, almost as if it were the fuel, the price to pay for the weight lifting off his shoulders as he watched his men begin shuffling about.

Cody clumsily hooked Obi-Wan's lightsaber to his own belt, keeping it safe for the inevitable journey back to the ships…

Waxer shakily dropped to a kneel before him. "General Skywalker and commander Tano are here, sir. They've brought reinforcements."

Cody nodded once. The movement had him dizzy all over again. He groaned against it.

Hesitantly, Waxer shifted forward. "Sir, we can take the general from your ha--"

" _ No _ ." Cody interrupted. His voice was thick with exhaustion. "I'll…I'll see to it myself...that he reaches Skywalker…"

With that, Waxer dipped out of his blurring line of sight. Time passed - it must have - because when he dragged his eyelids back open, Skywalker was in front of him, talking, muted. He was gathering Obi-Wan carefully, peeling him from Cody's grasp. He watched, numb, as Skywalker got his arms under Obi-Wan's shoulders and knees and lifted him to a stretcher splayed out nearby. The 501st's field medics grabbed either end and, with that, his general was gone.

Just like that.

Cody struggled to keep his eyes open.

Skywalker dropped his hand to Cody's shoulder and said something, something that looked like a, "thank you" but he couldn't be sure.  When the other general stood and left, the 212th's medic, Chip, took his place and set his bag down, beginning to look Cody over. He was talking, too, but no sound was coming out.

Digging his finger into one ear, Cody said, "Can't hear you,  _ vod. _ "

Chip jerked back.

Cody grimaced.

He must have been loud, then...

Another steady grip fell on his other shoulder as Boil slid into view. Mouth moving, again, but silence, still. Cody frowned. He tried to keep his voice as soft as possible. " What are you saying? I could hear a minute ago…"

Boil leaned in, removing his bucket and getting close to his ear. "Try _five_ minutes ago, commander! You've been sitting here for five minutes!" With the breath that hit his ear, he could tell the trooper was shouting. "Chip says it's probably okay! Hearing will come and go! You've got a concussion!" At his side, the medic said something and, once more, Boil got close. He strained to hear. “Commander, we’re transferring you to medical!” Cody nodded in understanding. It made him nauseous. Boil continued, “For easier transfer, Chip’s gonna knock you out _real_ quick, sir!”

Before he could even protest, Chip was pressing a hypo into his leg.

Darkness enveloped him.

Darkness, then warmth. A warmth that spread from his chest outwards, down his limbs, in his veins, leaving him feeling as if he were floating and fuzzy. Cody couldn’t think through the haze, but he could  _ hear _ . Voices, machines, whirring and beeping, the chattering of droids echoing nearby, everything filtering in at a pleasantly calming pace.

Eventually, his eyes opened.

“Morning, sir.” Chip was hovering over him, fiddling with the IV bag hung above his head. “You got yourself one nasty concussion. How're you feeling?”

Cody needed a moment to process the medic's words. Though Chip was talking normally, it was as if his syllables were sliding through tree sap, slow to delivery, sticky to comprehend. After a beat, he mumbled, “Terrible.”

“Ah, that’s fine.” Chip nodded. He moved to the other side of the room and Cody’s eyes followed, tracking him to where he began pulling out a few more hypos, each with different colored labels and fluids inside. He put most of them back save for three. Stepping up to his bedside, Chip wagged the thinner needle between them. “This is for nausea--” He switched to two thicker, dark purple hypos. “--and these are for pain.” Guiding Cody’s head one way, he pressed one after the other into his neck. “I’ll give them to you now to head the symptoms off. I want you up and moving as soon as possible."

Cody hummed.

“By the way,” He opened his eyes to Chip’s voice. Though, he frowned, forgetting when he had closed them. “General Skywalker came by. Wanted me to let you know general Kenobi’s out of surgery. He also wanted me to ask you if you knew where the general’s lightsaber is? Dunno what that's about.”

Realizations rolled over Cody in waves, then.

The first was that Obi-Wan was alive. He had survived, after all. The tough son-of-a-bitch managed to make it after getting shot three kriffing times _and_ getting blown up _._ At that, Cody’s lips quirked up.

The second was that Cody had been right, unfortunately. Surgery  _ had  _ been needed, and the physical therapy that would ultimately follow would likely be quite the painful, slog-of-a-process. While he wanted to stay by his Jedi’s side through it all, he doubted the higher ups would approve of that. That had soured his smile a bit.

The third left Cody feeling neutral, though, merely  _ okay _ as he relaxed further against the pristine sheets and listened to the machinery around him: everything, in the end, had worked out. It hadn’t necessarily been pretty, and he doubted he would feel this decent after seeing the casualty count in his officers’ reports, but for now, he would settle. His Jedi was alive, Skywalker had taken care of him, and he, too, had made it...

Cody shifted, glancing around the now-empty room. Chip must have left sometime while he was thinking; he hadn’t even heard the door open and close. 

Blinking up at the ceiling, Cody released a long, weary sigh. He blinked again, shifted, rolled his wrist absently.

The drowsiness was a bit disorienting, but the hypos must have been working because he was quickly beginning to feel antsy. He was soon wriggling his fingers, flexing his toes, testing his movement gingerly and as slowly as possible before swinging his legs over his bed and standing up. It was a pain to have to drag his IV stand with him, but Cody made it work, his left hand wrapped around the steel pole while his right yanked open the drawer that held his armor. Leaning down, Cody rummaged through the pieces, through the torn cloth, shifting his bulky chestplate and helmet off to the side until he grabbed the tail end of his belt. He fished it free and, lo and behold, Obi-Wan’s lightsaber was still hanging from it.

Cody wrestled it off the clip and rose. In his hand, the saber was still heavy, still all thick metal and frigid cold, nothing like it had been on the battlefield. Perhaps it had been the adrenaline rush, the fear, the need to protect his general. Or, perhaps Obi-Wan would know _something_ about it. He huffed a quiet laugh and made for the door, the weapon a sturdy weight in his palm.

When he inevitably awoke, Obi-Wan would be looking for it. He might as well deliver it personally.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah...this was really last minute. Which I'm a bit upset about, since I was _really_ excited for this prompt. I wrote it originally like a few days ago, but gdocs ate it, so I had to rewrite. This is her. So, apologies if it seems half-assed or rushed, that was not my intention at all. I hope you enjoyed, though! Because even though I had to rush, I _did_ have fun!
> 
> Check me out on [tumblr](https://imquitequiet.tumblr.com/) or you can come visit me on the brand new Star Wars whump [discord](https://discord.gg/TCJkwy8D2W) server! We'd love to have you, should you be so inclined to join...
> 
> Otherwise, thanks for reading!


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